G. W. Wilson
British, 1823 - 1893
(not assigned)Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe
BiographyWilson, George Washington (1823–1893), miniature painter and photographer, was born on 7 February 1823 at Brownside croft, Alvah, Banff, Scotland, the second son of the eleven children of George Wilson (1777–1848), a crofter from Banff, and his second wife, Elspet Hurd (1798–1883). He was educated in the local parish school (1830–35), but left at the age of twelve to be apprenticed to a local carpenter and house builder. During this time he developed an interest in art so strong that he gave up his secure job in 1846 and moved to Edinburgh with the intention of becoming a painter. Where he studied and with whom remain unknown, but when he moved to London in 1849 he became a pupil of Edward Henry Corbould, who had recently been appointed instructor of historical painting to the royal family. Following a brief visit to Paris in 1849, he returned to Aberdeen to establish himself as a portrait miniaturist. It was a brave choice of profession, as photography was beginning to have a profound impact upon this branch of the arts, being more fashionable, cheaper, and offering the promise of greater veracity.Wilson's début as a photographer was in a brief partnership with his friend John Hay, the son of an Aberdeen carver, gilder, and frame-maker. Together they established a studio in Aberdeen, offering sitters a choice between painting and photography for their portraits. In the year they began—1853—Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of her new highland home, Balmoral. Both she and Prince Albert believed wholeheartedly in the value of photography and through their patronage encouraged its early popularity. They commissioned Wilson and Hay to record building progress at Balmoral. This began a long association between the royal family and Wilson, who, over the years, undertook several commissions. A number of Wilson's photographs were used as the basis for the line illustrations of Queen Victoria's Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the Highlands (1868); there was also an edition of the Leaves illustrated with forty-two of Wilson's photographic prints. In recognition of this work he was granted a royal warrant in 1873.
Wilson's skill as a photographer and entrepreneur lay in his understanding of the potential of the medium for providing ever-increasing numbers of tourists with photographic souvenirs of their travels. Initially he concentrated on Scotland, where the impact of railways had effectively opened the country for the first time to a large number of visitors. Once established in this field he began photographing throughout Britain, concentrating upon popular haunts and picturesque spots beloved by tourists. However, he rarely ventured into Wales, as this was the commercial domain of the photographer Frances Bedford. A combination of aesthetic judgement and technical virtuosity produced Wilson's celebrated views of the loch of Park, in 1859, which for the first time successfully rendered sky and foreground in a single exposure. Capturing motion in a photograph was a goal for many photographers: Wilson's views of Princes Street, Edinburgh, also of 1859, revealed to an enchanted audience pedestrians and traffic stilled by his camera.
Critical acclaim at the 1862 International Exhibition in London and reviews in the leading art and photographic journals boosted sales of Wilson's photographs throughout Britain and overseas, and his was a household name when the craze for stereoscopic views was at its height. Unlike many other photographers who still regarded photography as a handicraft, Wilson applied the methods of the factory to the production of his prints. In 1864 he made and sold over half a million prints. Such was his success that he built new premises on the outskirts of Aberdeen in 1876 to cope with the increased demand. There he kept 45,000 negatives on file and a large staff, producing an annual output of several million prints. Despite constantly adapting to the market, the future of the company was threatened by the new printing technology which made it possible to print half-tone reproductions of photographs as postcards. It went into voluntary liquidation in 1902, nine years after Wilson's death.
With one Isabella Johnstone, Wilson had two illegitimate sons in 1841 and 1844; although he and Isabella never married Wilson raised and educated the elder boy, Alexander Johnson Wilson (1841–1921), who became a well-known economist in London. On 15 December 1849 Wilson married Maria Ann Cassie, daughter of an innkeeper in Banff; the couple had five sons and four daughters. Wilson died on 9 March 1893 at Queens Cross, Aberdeen, and was buried in Nellfield cemetery there. He was survived by his wife. The largest collection of his work—containing some 27,000 negatives—is the George Washington Wilson Photographic Archive at the University of Aberdeen.
Retrieved from Roger Taylor, ‘Wilson, George Washington (1823–1893)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/view/article/38138, accessed 21 Feb 2012]
Bibliography
R. Taylor: George Washington Wilson: Artist and Photographer (Aberdeen, 1981)
J. R. Hume and T. Jackson: George Washington Wilson and Victorian Glasgow (Aberdeen, 1983)
J. S. Smith: George Washington Wilson and Royal Deeside (Aberdeen, 1984)
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